ACTS-Newsletter-September-2019-FINAL

1 Warmest ‘Waldorf 100’ Wishes From ACTS Principal Supporter, Professor Thomas Südhof! Thomas Südhof, the Nobel Prize-winner for Medicine (Neuroscience) has an understandably busy schedule at his laboratory in the Lokey Stem Cell Research Labs, Stanford University, San Francisco Nevertheless, in 2015, he generously agreed to lend his name and support to a then fledgling ACTS project that was at the time little more than an idea That help has been invaluable But the most surprising request for him, so far, was when he was asked to sign a 100-year-old bassoon for Edinburgh Steiner School as a symbol of the creative link between music and science, and to mark the 100th year of Waldorf Education The scientist and bassoon-playing Professor Südhof quipped, ‘Surely never done that before!’ As a Waldorf alumnus himself, Professor Südhof now advises students to ‘learn a skill and then be creative with it’, and to ‘never accept anybody else’s view or interpretation until you have thought about it and examined it.’ Elaine Holt elaine@acts.cloud Pictures Courtesy of Elaine Holt ACTS in Ireland Philosophy and Practice of Integrated Education The ACTS Certificate and Diploma at Raheen Wood ALFA, County Clare, Ireland (PPIE) training course, and were delighted to We encountered ACTS initially through our teacher Nell Smyth’s presenting ‘Drama at the Heart’ at an ACTS conference in Michael Hall, back in October 2017 She returned to ALFA with news of something we really wanted to get involved in hang the expense launch the two-module Certificate with our students in September 2018 It immediately revealed an amazing scope of interest and researches Making a ukulele, Taekwondo, a graphic novel, Korean cuisine, a harm reduction approach to drug education, a model V8 engine, the life of Joseph Mengele and traditional leather We paired up with Steiner Academy Hereford, we processing technologies were just some of the stusupported another teacher, Cormac Griffith, to dent-initiated Independent Projects In May 2019 qualify as Internal Quality Assurer through the the Creative Thinking Skills portfolios proved to be a really helpful way of reflecting on the body of work produced across all the Main Lessons and curricular areas We were delighted to discover in June that the full ten module Diploma was to be available for the new school year, and rolled it out in summary form to our Senior Group on the first day back—with a positive response from all At last the work our students is to receive a ‘real-world’ acknowledgement, and the new qualification is creating considerable interest in progressive educational circles across Ireland Alan Dickey, School Administrator Raheen Wood ALFA www.alfaproject.org Picture: ‘Sofija’s Ukulele’ Courtesy of Raheen Wood ACTS in Germany Learn to Change the World! In early May 2019, a fellow teacher at our Waldorf School here in Germany asked me if I happened to know what Rudolf Steiner had to say about school exams I told her I could try to find out and began searching the internet Among all the results that popped up there appeared before my eyes the term ACTS which, as far as I was concerned, could have meant anything from “Academic Cowboys Tequila Saloon” to “Alien Contact Through Singing” – had those four letters not been written in that distinct Waldorf fashion, which I found intriguing I was amazed to find there a beautiful and informative website that told a marvellous tale of a group of European teachers developing an alternative to the traditional concepts of assessment And it was by no means just a fairy tale but had led to a new set of qualifications that are now internationally available I was excited I quickly read the first chapters of the handbook and thought, “Nobody over here in Germany has probably ever heard of this!” So, I gained Elaine Holt´s kind permission to translate the handbook into German, and this work is now well under way Just a few days later, our school celebrated a Waldorf 100 festival where I was asked to participate in a panel discussion I brought up the whole topic of ACTS, which led to a very lively discussion On the same occasion a group of students who had just left our school - some after final exams and some before - performed a lovesong to their past Waldorf schooldays and sang about how they now regretted having been unfaithful to their much-loved education (“which always sees the uniqueness in every child and doesn´t try to mould them into something else”) by taking the “Abitur” exams.* I feel strongly that we have here a critically urgent issue to attend to – for the sake of our children and the future of education and society It is a cultural mission begging to be fulfilled, somewhat like the birth of Impressionism My wish is that word may spread around the world, for there are surely many who have been waiting for a change At our Waldorf 100 school festival all the children were wearing T-shirts with bright coloured letters, reading: Waldorf 100 – learn to change the world! Angela Saborowski, Freie Waldorfschule Lübeck *Watch the students’ Waldorf love-song here: https://youtu.be/cKQXLMsleHo ACTS at Snellman College, Helsinki, Finland Snellman College, the Steiner Waldorf teacher training centre in Finland, has followed the ACTS project and PPIE program since their beginning Two of the ACTS intensives were held at Snellman College and Eeva Raunela, PhD, who is responsible for the students’ research projects also took part in the PPIE program During the ACTS project Eeva held a course on creative thinking skills and assessment methods for the class teacher and the speech and drama teacher students Through different ”hands on” activities the students became aware of the variety of creative thinking skills alongside how they could, when they graduate as a teacher, start to think of activities they could offer to their students The collegium of Snellman College has a long tradition of having a summer reading book or articles Then the teachers share ideas and thoughts on the first week of fall semester – before the students come This summer one of the readings was Elaine Holt’s book Acknowledging Creative Thinking skills: Educating for a Creative Future The faculty read the chapters ”Identifying Creative Thinking Skills” and 18 ”Synthesis” as well as the content of chapters 17 starting from the teacher’s own interest Eeva had given the www.acts.cloud address to get the book and few of the teachers had also printed it to read it on paper They spent one day discussing the ACTS project, PPIE program and most of all – what is creativity Eeva lead the conversation and the faculty went through all the Creative Thinking Skills Spectrum Most of the teachers had not been aware of the variety At Snellman College creativity is always present as we have a years, full time art teacher program and a years, full time speech and drama teacher program We talk a lot about art in teaching and teaching as art but creativity at this level hasn’t been fully discussed before Teachers’ creativity is an essential topic to continue As in the ACTS project, the Steiner Waldorf teachers have been planning ways for high school students to show creativity in their studies, and as in the PPIE program the subject teachers have studied philosophy and practice to be able to deliver the certificate and diploma We certainly need to focus also on how to integrate creative thinking skills into the class teacher training Elaine Holt’s book is the key text for us at Snellman to continue to think how we lead the pupils from creative play to creative thinking – as we teach about Steiner Waldorf Education Dr Eeva Raunela, Snellman College, Helsinki Eeva.raunela@steinerkasvatus.fi Pictures Courtesy of Liisa Valonen 4 ACTS in the USA ACTS workshops at the international Creativity Conference at Southern Oregon University July 2019 Colour Dynamics and Making Ancient Pigments at the SOU Creativity Conference, Oregon Pictures Courtesy of Michael D Davis In our first major engagement with the wider academic world, in 2018, I had been invited to present the ACTS project to the inaugural Creativity Conference at Southern Oregon University The ideas were well received and prompted numerous messages of encouragement and goodwill This summer, over 300 delegates from every inhabited continent across the globe gathered there once again and, to my delight, I was invited back to present two supplementary practical workshops on the Creative Thinking Skills Spectrum - particularly Two-Dimensional Thinking and Three-Dimensional Thinking, - through an interaction with colour dynamics and the symbolic role of pigments in the evolution of consciousness 5 Logistics aside, the workshops were a joy to be part of and I was touched and heartened by the generosity of spirit and open-mindedness of those who attended They included professors, academics, business leaders, creatives, entrepreneurs and others—including the principal concept designer at Walt Disney Imagineering—drawn from many countries The local Siskiyou Waldorf School kindly helped me with the heavy equipment and my large suitcase, which was stuffed to bursting with suspicious pigments and powders (and a bassoon) managed to survive the somewhat bemused security checks at the airport It seemed that there was a hunger for colour and a deep satisfaction taken from working with the Creative Thinking Skills Spectrum which, like the iceberg, keeps the majority of its form unseen, silent and below the waterline Colour dynamics Given the sheer acreage of PowerPoints and words, both spoken and written, at the previous conference, I was not sure if anyone would be interested in practical colour workshops, and so it came as a wonderful surprise to see every place in the room taken - and more crowding the doorway - at the first workshop offers a route to observe and enhance our personal symbolic language, enriching our thinking and experiencing of the world, and when shared, enriches our communication with others Elaine Holt elaine@acts.cloud Open Access Book Download Here Acknowledging Creative Thinking Skills: Educating for a Creative Future By Elaine Holt Pictures Courtesy of Michael D Davis Outi Rousu ACTS in Norway While many contributors to the ACTS mission may appear in the spotlight from time to time and are kindly given praise and thanks, there are others who are the unsung heroes that have worked behind the scenes to make the impossible, possible One such example is the Norwegian contribution: the wonderful ACTS website This has been designed, maintained and hosted in Norway by the Steinerskoleforbundet – Norway, in particular, the webmaster, Gottfried Straube Fjeldså, whose eternal patience and perseverance has led to our lovely website It is Gottfried’s intention that in the very near future an even better website design will be bursting onto our screens As this is often the first ACTS in England Picture Courtesy of Gottfried Staub Fjeldså point for information for interested parties, Gottfried’s creative work is invaluable to ACTS—a contribution that we are pleased to acknowledge here Elaine Holt elaine@acts.cloud grated Education and creative thinking skills For more information or a copy of the project outline please contact Rebecca Mitchell at cambridgeintegratededucation@gmail.com Rebecca Mitchell Project Coordinator Cambridge International College for Creativity, Innovation and Sustainability Crossfields Institute: In 2018 and 2019, Crossfields launched the Integrated Education suite of qualifications at Levels Cambridge: and 3, which were developed as a result of the Inspired by the Integrated Education qualifications ACTS project Trials have been underway and the developed through the ACTS project, a group of first students registered staff and parents from Cambridge Steiner School have been working on a proposal for an Integrated Alison Richards, Head of Quality Assurance at Education Upper School for 14 to 18 year-olds, Crossfields Institute gives this update: with the proposed title of Cambridge International “Three schools in the UK and Ireland are currently College for Creativity, Innovation and Sustainabil- working with the Crossfields Institute Level Inteity The group see the IE qualifications as having a grated Education Certificate key role in creating a more inclusive, supportive and relevant educational experience that will give ALFA (Active Learning for Adolescents) based at young people the skills and abilities they need to Raheen Wood Steiner School, Ireland, have regisconfidently deal with today’s environmental and tered 10 students, who are currently working tosocial challenges and would like to see them taken wards completion of the Certificate They are hopup as widely as possible They hope that the pro- ing to register some students on the Level Inteposed college will act as a flagship model for Inte- grated Education Diploma this year 7 The school is working in partnership with Steiner Academy Hereford, who are providing quality assurance and registering the students ACTS Project Reflections Steiner Academy Hereford and Edinburgh Steiner School have both received centre approval from Crossfields Institute, and have been piloting the Independent Project module from the level Integrated Education Certificate I am expecting both schools to register 10-12 students onto the Certificate shortly, and to be working on the Creative Thinking Skills module in the coming year.” Kevin Avison, Author Picture Courtesy of Kevin Avison Alison also highlighted another interesting development during the qualification registration process: “When we were developing the Level qualifications we benchmarked them against comparable qualifications designed for 15 – 16 year olds in England In particular, we looked at the Extended Project Qualifications (EPQ) offered by other AOs, which are the obvious parallel to the Independent Project Module It became clear that students from Steiner schools are expected to, and achieve, higher levels of self-direction and selfmanagement at this age and stage, due, in part, to the process of undertaking a Class Project What we are starting to see from schools that are working with the Level Certificate is that many students are able to reach, and excel, in this module by the end of class 8, achieving high standards, and showing good project management, organisation and time management skills This also sets them up well to work with the Creative Thinking Skills aged 15 and 16.” Crossfields Institute is a Gloucestershire based education charity, approved by Ofqual (the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulations in England) as an awarding organisation The Institute specialises in the development of qualifications that take an integrative, human-centred approach to learning and development Schools who are interested in finding out more about offering these qualifications should contact qualityassurance@crossfieldsinstitute.com Living Lifelong Creativity ‘Knowledge treasured as the gift of education is really only useful as a catalyst for the student's creativity Not used for this purpose knowledge simply amounts to inert ideas.’ Alfred North Whitehead One of the key contributions to our changing notion of the value of creativity is George Land's 1968 study of 1600 four to five year olds, in which he used a test for creativity he and his co-workers had designed to identify innovative engineers and scientists for NASA Owing to the success of the test at NASA and its simplicity, Land decided to run it to assess the creative potential of young children He then repeated the test with the same children at age ten and fifteen The results were striking, but stark: • Test results amongst five year-olds: 98% showed high creativity • Test results amongst 10 year-olds: 30% showed high creativity • Test results amongst 15 year-olds: 12% showed high creativity • Same test given to 280,000 adults: 2% showed high creativity The typical loss of imagination and creativity described in Land's study was a concern shared by Rudolf Steiner Waldorf education has at its heart the intention to encourage the playful intelligence and absorption of the young child, which Steiner as the work of spiritual forces, and then to lead these towards interaction with the essential skills and knowledge needed in the adult world He recognised the living child retained within the adult as an enlivening source of inspiration and vitality from birth to death His vision amounted to an ecology of human life, with lifelong learning at the centre of ongoing well-being and development Steiner describes Waldorf education as an "art” contributing to a constructive work in progress, supporting the individual child in creating their distinctive home within humanity as a whole A recent study, published in the U.S Journal of Public Health, adds to reports based on lifeworld, or anecdotal, experience as to the health benefits of the arts, including the well-established use of arts therapeutically: artistic qualities assist general learning, reduce stress and promote health Nonetheless, although the arts were, from the outset, integrated into the Waldorf curriculum, and its methodology has been developed from that perspective, there is much more Waldorf educators could to fulfil Waldorf principles The ACTS project focussed attention on this When Waldorf students reach the upper school stage of their education, the question of national examinations lies in wait for them like a trap The easiest response is to accept that the trap is unavoidable and to prepare students accordingly while adding as much practical, aesthetic and expressive activity as possible (which may not always be much) What the ACTS project did, was to enable teachers from the four countries involved in it to explore alternative paradigms We did not allow ourselves the comfort of falling back upon long-held assumptions about curriculum and practice: these were interrogated in an exchange of approaches drawn from the experience of Danish, Finnish and Norwegian colleagues We explored different dimensions of assessment, seeking ways in which distinctive types of achievement could be recognised and evaluated through processes that are thorough and consequential but not reductively simplistic Standardised "pencil and paper" testing is straightforward to administer but concentrates learning into only one small corner of the field of skills needed for life in a rapidly changing world In this tight corner, a strongly guarded bastion of privilege holds sway, refusing admission to the rich variety of other ways of seeing, learning and understanding Elaine Holt's key contribution to ACTS was to characterise eleven modes of creative thought and action, which deserve their place in the assessment of young people's developing capability as effective individuals and responsible citizens The toolkit of techniques contributed by colleagues of the Crossfields Institute provide the means for that range of skills and capacities to be formally recognised UK teachers who have taken these up have found they inspire their students, drawing out new insights and aspects of study that might previously have been overlooked; and certainly would not have "counted" for any formal recognition All that is now needed is for sufficient Waldorf teachers to have the courage of their convictions Our students know what is needed better than we do! Kevin Avison Educator, Author and ACTS Project Management Team Member for the UK Excerpts from a longer article entitled ‘Who is Creative’ available at: www.acts.cloud Piano Picture Courtesy of Liisa Valonen 9 ACTS in Scotland Edinburgh: focused, self-directed activity One student, Maryam, wrote of her experience: “Going into this project I was very excited to learn something new, and after making all the mistakes, I started to understand and get the hang of doing Batik After I finished one or two pieces and saw them completed, it made me feel really good about what I’d accomplished One of my favourite parts was drawing my ideas for a new painting into my sketchbook, it being original art or with inspiration from Pinterest I plan to continue improving my Batik skills and make it a lifelong hobby, which was one of my goals going into my project.” Pupils Exhibition Challenges Exams Edinburgh Steiner School is a centre for the delivery of Integrated Education (a suite of qualifications emerging from the international ACTS project) Along with other Steiner schools across Europe, we will now be able to work with the awarding body—Crossfields Institute—to offer qualifications at Level (equivalent to GCSE) and, in time, Level (equivalent to A-Level) This year, our School’s Class pupils successfully undertook a pilot of the Level Independent Project module, which forms half the Integrated Education Certificate (while three members of staff have, over the course of the last two years, been engaged in a rigorous post-graduate training programme to embed the skills necessary to teach and assess IE courses at all levels The pupils started their independent projects in September 2018 The exhibition of their work was on the 1st 2nd April 2019 Ironically, it took place in the school hall, where most of the conventional exams are sat However, this time it wasn’t the pupil under examination, it was the qualification itself being piloted The projects amazed and inspired those who saw them The work was of a high standard, even considering that they were taking a recognised Level module in Class 8, at just 13-14 years old, such was their capacity for Another Student, Euan, chose to make a street organ, which took him eight months He learnt to play it too He found an expert mentor for his project in Peter Hopps, alongside his in-school mentor Peter was the head pipe voicer for Harris and Harris, his last job was tuning the organ for Prince William and Kate’s wedding Euan intends to join the Fairground Organ Preservation Society as a junior member Sarah Miller Pictures Courtesy of Edinburgh Steiner School 10 Philosophy and Practice of Integrated Education (PPIE) Taking part in the ACTS project and the associated PPIE postgraduate teacher training course have been life changing experiences for me The most relevant aspect has been to come to a better understanding of Rudolf Steiner’s view of the human constitution It affected me as a teacher and as a human being in all levels In the micro level starting with myself, how I see myself in all areas of my life and what kind of inner work I can to develop further as a teacher, parent and person Then how it affects my role as a member of my school community, as a teacher, a member of a collegium, in cooperation with colleagues and parents In the macro levels how the PPIE and the ACTS gave me the opportunity of creating bonds with likeminded teachers in Finland and abroad For example, there have been in my school several cooperation projects with Steiner schools abroad To name a few: a visit from Skandenborg Steiner school to Finland in 2017, a visit from our class 9B to Moss Steiner School in Norway in 2016, a cooperation project with classes 11B from our school and Odense Steiner schools, among others My research project “Truth, Goodness and Beauty in a Holistic Approach to Foreign Language Teaching: The ongoing journey of a teacher”, was initiated by my curiosity in piloting the ideas brought forward in the ACTS project My bigger question is what is Steiner education for the upper classes in our day and time? And in my daily practice I narrowed it down to the question of what does holistic mean in foreign language teaching? Also, how Integrative Education, IE, can become a reality through transdiciplinarity I have cooperated with the home economics teacher, the physics teacher and the sculpture teacher among others, so students have worked with English and other subjects at the same time In this journey I found the holistic in me My Picture Courtesy of Andrea Brandao teaching has developed greatly, I have become more present in the moment, a better listener to my students and a more grounded and focused teacher seeing teaching in with the day-to-day practice, and the bigger picture in a new light I also came to realise that compared to other countries, Finland has an overall good situation in education and a tremendous pedagogical freedom that we, especially in Steiner schools, are not taking full advantage of In the 100th anniversary year of Steiner schools Worldwide we need to ask ourselves what function we can fulfil in our day and age, and how Steiner education differs from mainstream education How Rudolf Steiner would face the challenges we face now? To continue strong for another 100 years, these are relevant questions to be discussed and the need for research in Steiner education is a pressing one On a private note, I learned that for me studying is an important element in my own self-care And in an age of lack of well-being in the workplace and elsewhere it is vital we learn how to take good care of ourselves Good practices need to be shared and that is the reason why I and some colleagues are working to make a Crossfields Finland Institute a reality in a near future Andrea Brandao English Teacher ( Classes 7-12) Rudolf Steiner Skolan i Helsingfors CFF, Crossfields Institute Finland 11 PPIE Teacher Training Research Presentations At Snellman College: Summaries From the Finland Class of 2019 My Journey Through Self-management Can Eurythmy Help to Understand Rudolf Steiner’s Text? I decided to a very personal journey of self-discovery after realizing that, as a vice principal, I was swamped Three different groups took part in eurythmic explorawith work and had no control or organization over it tion to try to understand condensed extracts from Rudolf This involved reorganizing my tasks in three different Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom In a questionnaire, this calendars depending of the level and urgency of tasks It was reported as an important and joyful activity that fameant changing the position of my desk five times And cilitated understanding of the text Some suggested ideas for further work, such as first and foremost, it meant learning to understand my tem- How Can I Support Students’ Learning in a using Eurythmy in deepening part of Thursday meetings It Normal Classroom Using CTS? perament, distraction threshold was mentioned that Eurythmy and such things about how I In Finnish Waldorf High School there are nowa- helps making something very work best It didn’t mean asking days students with a varied set of talent and abstract, very concrete It is to work less or delegating my learning skills There is not necessarily the re- interesting that Thursday tasks It works for me that my sources or justification in sending them to spe- meetings were not a focus of desk is at the busiest place of the cial needs education The question is about hav- this exploration, but as workteacher’s room and I hear all ing a suitable teaching attitude and finding ways ing with Steiner’s texts is probconversations while working I’ve to teach different learning skills and help each lematic in many schools, some realized I’m happy with my many student to gain autonomy over their own learn- participants saw this kind of tasks and I’ve learnt to accept ing as well as self-assurance that they can learn working as a possible solution that sometimes my work is spoThe different learning strategies can be linked for an existing problem radic, during one important task to different Creative Thinking Skills These links Outi Rousu I might several little tasks were used to create a Learning strategies Main People are different and they Lesson Book All CTS and learning strategies thrive on different working conHow to Improve were worked into the texts within the Main lesditions Maria Virkkilä Thursday Meetings son book This book remains in students’ possession throughout High school and when they The school management team Developing Emotional Skills come up with difficulties, they can use it as a had been pretty happy with Through Meditative Exercises resource to find help in the form of a strategy Thursday meetings But, FindIn a Finnish Waldorf school an attempt was made to have a voluntary group of teachers meeting regularly during part of the spring in an attempt to develop emotional skills The emotional skills were mapped before and after the project The person carrying the project planned the group sessions and exercises Three of the auxiliary exercises of Rudolf Steiner were used Despite the project leader’s original sceptical stance, the result was positive, it seemed that this kind of work is useful and can help teachers with their emotional skills Kirsi Peräjärvi ing out that not everyone shared this view, a questionnaire was used to gather opinions Most people considered pedagogical and artistic work important Some things were found unnecessary by many, such as reading the minutes or planning the festivals Some thought that meetings were long enough and liked common meals, others preferred a shorter meeting without food Some thoughts were not combinable Measures were taken Meetings became generally shorter but ended at varied times, with no minutes and festivals planned by smaller group Later that same semester another questionnaire was filled It had a more positive outlook on meetings as a result What does this prove? It is Kati Ylinampa worthwhile to ask the opinions of others and, if possible, to take onboard the suggestions and try the possible ones Anne-Mari Savolainen 12 Future ACTS Creativity involves understanding what needs to be preserved from the past and the courage to step boldly into the future then please spread the word, to anyone who you think might like to know about ACTS or get involved - the more the merrier! International Collaboration with Higher Education The EU-funded ACTS project has successfully comThe Southern Oregon University Creativity Conferpleted all its aims - on every count - and even exence 2019 offered a wonderful opportunity not ceeded them But the mission of ACTS has become only to present ACTS to a whole new audience, but more than the sum of its parts and on the horizon, also to meet like-minded academics and businessfuture opportunities and collaborations are beginpeople Professor Thomas Vogel of Emerson Colning to come into view lege Boston, USA, and author of the book Breakthrough Thinking: A Guide to Creative Thinking and ACTS fund set up by Idea Generation (available at https:// Hermes Trust www.simonandschuster.com/books/Breakthrough The Hermes Trust Regis-Thinking/Thomas-Vogel/9781440333309) was tered Charity (Charity there presenting his new award-winning short film Number 281749) which YesNoMaybe, which perfectly captured the experiis based in the UK, with ences of young people today regarding creativity international reach, has kindly provided the facility and other, sometimes contradictory, modern-day of a restricted fund to which supporters of ACTS demands The trailer can be viewed at https:// can donate The money raised will be used to facil- vimeo.com/304283032 We discovered a synergy itate ongoing international collaboration, research between our two projects, and further discussions and development of ACTS principles, as set out in have highlighted possible areas for future collabothe open access book Acknowledging Creative ration These include: Thinking Skills: Educating for a Creative Future, and ensure that the current activity does not con- ă Creative Thinking Skills development and assessment strategies for higher education and business tinue to rely entirely upon voluntary work The teachers involved in the original project valued ă A review of assessment tools related to organisathe international dialogue and regretted its ending tional creativity when the project finished There is also scope for ¨ Participation in an international online platform further international collaboration, research and that matches creative thinking teachers and coachdevelopment of organisational and wider educa- es with people interested in exploring and practictional applications, alongside practical lobbying to ing creativity improve understanding at government and policyă A possible international academic research study making levels, if funds permit into Steiner Waldorf Independent Projects to try There is plenty to do, both nationally and interna- and understand why the standard of work has tionally, and this is why a fund - however small or been independently identified as two years ahead large - would be useful So, if your philanthropic of the national standards for the age at which they muscles are starting to flex and you would like to are completed support this work, please feel free to donate using I look forward to our future work together Expresthe button provided here sions of interest from organisations or individuals If you would like to support the work in other ways are warmly invited Elaine Holt 13 Future ACTS Organisational Creativity and Autonomy The Creative Thinking Skills Spectrum, which informed and shaped the ACTS project, is now being developed for use as an energising, nonjudgemental organisation development tool for schools, higher education and business, based upon inclusivity, clarity and insight Organisations are created as reflections of human thought processing that we recognise, and our human interactions with those outer structures further impact upon our inner thought processing We practise externally what will become internalised potential and practice, and this applies to organisations as much as to individuals For more information please contact elaine@acts.cloud About ACTS Acknowledging Creative Thinking Skills (ACTS) began as an EU-funded project (2015-18) to bring a 'paradigm shift' to international standardised assessment practices and produce more appropriate, flexible and less stressful qualifications for all The five strands to the project were: Redesigning school-leaving qualifications in the light of Waldorf understanding of human development These are now registered with Ofqual at Levels and and approved by the UK government for funding in state-maintained schools in England The qualifications are designed around successful Waldorf Pedagogy but have a flexible Creative Thinking Skills core certificate that can over-arch any content and allow any school to trial the ideas The qualifications are provided by Crossfields Institute Providing the open access book Acknowledging Creative Thinking Skills: Educating for a Creative Future This articulates Steiner's principles, as set out in Philosophy of Freedom, for a modern and wider audience It highlights the central ACTS aim of developing true autonomy to act with integrity within the world through engagement with the eleven key creative thinking skills The book can be found at www.acts.cloud Initiating an ACTS-associated upper school, post-graduate teacher training course: The Philosophy and Practice of Integrated Education, provided by Crossfields Institute Providing on-going conferences, workshops, talks and events Contact info@acts.cloud for further information or to book Full details of the project’s aims and achievements are available on the ACTS website: www.acts.cloud The ACTS project was developed and coordinated by Elaine Holt on behalf of the lead partner: Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship (UK) www.steinerwaldorf.org The other partners were: Steinerskoleforbundet (Norway) www.steinerskolen.no Steinerkasvatuksen liitto (Finland) www.steinerkasvatus.fi Sammenslutningen af frie Rudolf Steiner skoler i Danmark (Denmark) www.rudolfsteinerskoler.dk Crossfields Institute (UK) www.crossfieldsinstitute.com All rights reserved - 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